Partners from Economy and Society

Participating schools

Duration

01.10.2014 – 28.02.2018

BIO KoSMoS

Allergy-vaccines and ink for BioArt: Proteins for artistic and medical applications will be generated by scholars and researchers

BIO-KoSMoS is a project which links biotechnology, medicine and modern art. Therefore, the young and different mindset of students is required. With the help of Flying Labs, lab days at the university, a mentoring system and a think-tank in the sense of "open innovation" we try to bring the creativity of young people into research.

Within the project, the expression of allergens and fluorescent proteins in a cell-free system will be established. This will allow a high-throughput screening of modified allergens for therapeutic applications. Therefore, we will focus on ragweed and cypress pollen allergies. Especially ragweed, a neophyte introduced from North America into the European flora, accounts responsible for an increasing number of allergic diseases in Austria. Cypress allergies in contrast constitute a huge health problem in the Mediterranean area. Thus, with this Sparkling Science project we plan to create a novel platform for targeted allergy design.

Fluorescent proteins, which are necessary to establish the cell-free protein expression system, will be directly used as pigment material to manufacture and test BioArt inks and BioArt dyes. This biological colour system is adapted together with pupils for the artistic usability and tested on various painting and printing surfaces. An exhibition of the resulting artwork will demonstrate the close relationship of science and art to a broad public, thus proving the benefits of modern innovation management.

To ensure an inspiring and sustainable science education, this project will provide the basis to establish another Flying Lab – for schools nationwide in Austria. The Flying Labs are an award-winning educational initiative, which successfully transfer modern science directly to schools for years now. This ensures a permanent and successful cooperation between universities and schools.
In addition to the research objectives, primary goals of this project are to inspire young people to think and work scientifically, to establish new methods for allergen expression and to create internationally unique biotechnological painting materials.

Sparkling Science - a programme of Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy

Programme organisation: Austrian Agency for International Cooperation in Education and Research (OeAD-GmbH